Chinese people made outstanding contributions to world civilization during the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD). Emperor Wudi, the fifth ruler of the Han Dynasty, was a talented man with an affinity for variety shows. According to Records of the History by Sima Qian, Emperor Wudi invited a number of foreigners to a sumptuous banquet in 108BC in order to extol the virtues of his empire's vast territory and abundant resource. The guests were presented beautiful gifts and entertained with variety shows featuring music and dance, acrobatics, wrestling, performances by men disguised as rare animals and wild animal acts. A point well worth mentioning is that envoys from Parthia (today's Iran) brought artists from Alexandria, Egypt, to China to perform at the banquet. Their performances included knife swallowing, fire spitting, man slaughtering and horsemanship. The magnificent performances and grand dinner party enabled Emperor Wudi to deeply impress his foreign guests with the power and prosperity of his empire. In addition, he successfully achieved his political goal of convincing countries in the Western Regions to enter into friendly ties with the Han and form an alliance against powerful Hun nomads.
Acrobatics as a performing art took shape and grew during the early years of the Han Dynasty, while variety arts centered on acrobatics emerged during the Eastern Han Dynasty (25-220).
The basic classification of the highly skilled art form of both Han Dynasty and modern acrobatics remains the same and is a unique phenomenon rarely seen in performing arts in other countries. Han Dynasty acrobatics were divided into the following categories as evidenced by wall paintings, painted bricks and stone carvings dating back to the Han period.
